Thursday, January 21, 2016

My go-to book for writing has become Donald Maass's book, 'Writing 21st Century Fiction.' As many times as I read it, I always find new techniques to implement into my writing. Like adding twists and turns. I feel I add my share of twists and turns, but he encourages a writer to go beyond the expected and create something unexpected.

Mr. Maass suggests to open your manuscript to any scene, then ask yourself, "what would blow the story sideways right now? Go for it."

So I found a spot in my WIP that I thought was too much narrative and not enough action. I added the unexpected. BAM! It added flavor and a dash of ridiculousness to the scene. I loved it. My writers group at the time did not find it a reasonable change. Some said it mislead the readers at what that particular character was all about. I contemplated removing the addition. I changed my mind and kept it in. My unexpected twist opened up my story line and created a deeper layer of involvement than I had originally intended with that character. It gave that character a new purpose the reader had not been aware of previously. I hadn't realized this new twist would bring the character to life. What a pleasant surprise.

Basically, I'm not telling you anything new. But this can serve as a reminder to not be too comfortable with your plot. Add the unexpected. Donald Maass suggests, "If the expected happens, change it. If nothing new is discovered, discover it and add it."

Thursday, January 14, 2016

I'm sad this great actor has left us so soon. I first adored Alan Rickman when he played the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, starring with Kevin Costner.

He was genius in his portrayal of nasty characters. And funny. Even likable. He had a way of revealing just enough of his character's hidden emotions to draw the viewer in.

And I have to mention his part as Hans Gruber,
in Die Hard, with Bruce Willis. A fabulous performance. He was a gifted criminal in front of the camera.

Most of all, we remember Alan Rickman for his role as the Master of Potions, Professor Severus Snape, in the Harry Potter movies. What a wonderful, delightfully, frightening character. Having read all of the Harry Potter books, I know first hand what a magnificent job he did bringing Prof. Snape to life.

Alan Rickman never received an Oscar for his performances, and he said something to the fact that, 'parts win prizes, not actors.' How profound of him. I know as a writer, I would love to have someone of his caliber portray one of my characters. I imagine that is a dream of many writers ~ to have their work turned into a movie or play. Writers also strive for awards to show the world they are worthy, and folks should read more of their books. I don't believe I've ever come across a writer who would say, 'plots win prizes, not writers.' But then writers are a pretty insecure bunch. We dream of big characters, we rarely get to become one. Alan Rickman had the uncanny ability and opportunity to give a big character life. And we are all better for it.

Friday, January 8, 2016

There have been a number of reports in the past year about
the decline in the sales of e-books which based on this headline alone might
make an aspiring author wonder if it is even worth it to try and self-publish
or if the traditional route is indeed the best method.

I contend that the answer to this question is that it
depends.

It depends on how you look at the publishing industry and
how technology has affected that industry overall. When books were primarily in print the introduction
of the paperback book was truly revolutionary in that it made reading more
accessible and affordable, and the smaller more economical book size and
material allowed more opportunities for new authors. It really wasn’t that long ago that
advertising an author’s new work included the phrase, “first time in hardcover”
as if rendered an increase in status of the author.

I suspect if we look at the statistics of when different
print formats such as paperback and trade size were introduced that we would
find a decrease in sales of hardcover just as there were declines in certain
print markets when e-books were hot.
E-books have actually been around for a very long time but there were
many barriers to the market that were only challenged with the introduction of
markets such as the one established with the Kindle.

But e-books are different than print, easier and cheaper to
produce and the reader doesn’t even have to get out of his or her pajamas to
buy the darn book. In fact that reader
doesn’t even have to get out of bed. So
what the heck is going on and why are e-book sales down? One source reports a decline in Adult Trade
E-book sales down 4.5% and Children’s/YA is down a whopping 44%. So again, what the heck is going on?

Well, according to a very detailed and lengthy article at
Publishers Weekly part of the reason may very well be that with e-books we are
not just talking about the book itself, but also the device it’s actually read
on. I know with my first book, published
in 2012, I only published to the Kindle format and I did most of the formatting
and cover work myself. The response was
much less than I expected. With my next
work, currently to be published later this year, I plan to use a publisher that
will do the work for me and distribute my book to multiple platforms. It will be interesting to see what happens.

There’s also the issue that some people just like to read in
print and depending on the materials I am sometimes one of those people. I prefer to read text books and anything with
diagrams in print but I’m also a fan of reading newspapers online, yet, I read
fiction almost exclusively on my Kindle.
My neighbor wants nothing to do with e-books but is struggling to find
print books either at the library or in print since the cost of print books
continues to increase. She reads the newspaper
in print only and recently complained to me that in the book review section of
the newspaper (something that is hard to find these days) she found a book
reviewed that she really wants to read but it is only available as an e-book.

Just as I never believed there would ever be a paperless
office, I don’t believe print books are dead.
Many, many decades ago when televisions became more affordable and
started populate more and more homes the death of radio was announced but that
didn’t happen either. In fact radio is
very much alive and well and has evolved to stay relevant with current and
potential customers.

One of the issues for e-books may very well be the wide
range of devices that have to be used to access them for the reader. I know with my library at one point I couldn’t
check out certain e-books because the only device I had that could accommodate the
book was my actual computer and not my Kindle.
I am not one to sit at my computer and read a book. I’ve since found ways to read those books on
my Kindle device.

With the technological advances in laptops, tablets and smart
phones, the device just may be less and less controlling of how we read e-books
going forward, but there’s a new storm brewing for the reader’s attention and
that is interactive books and embedded material to get the reader to engage on
multiple levels with the story. This
idea has actually been around for quite a while and gamers have been using many
of the techniques and technological advances that regular readers will soon be
exposed to in the coming years.

My assessment is that this interactive and embedded reading
experience is as much a marketing tactic as anything else because in the final
analysis the one thing that none of us can overlook is that at the end of the
day, most of the businesses and publishers that bring us the reading material
we enjoy need to make a profit. Authors
first and foremost want to find readers who will enjoy what they have written
but the paths to that end are many and varied, which brings me back to a topic
I’ve written about before and that is discoverability. To modify a famous saying from a famous
movie, just because you write it doesn’t mean they’ll be able to read it.

Here’s the link to the Publishers Weekly article and it is
definitely worth your time to read it:

Maybe it is as the Publishers Weekly article suggests and
e-books are just leveling out as happens with any product or market. I personally believe that e-books are here to
stay or the major publishers wouldn’t be investing so many resources into
providing the books electronically.
Sometimes the book is only available electronically as publishers have
discovered that this is a cost-effective way to determine if a new author is
worthy of print, and not just in hardcover format.

I also recommend checking out the Consumer Electronic Show
coverage about how technology, data and content are being packaged and
delivered to consumers. It might just
surprise you how much of this is related to readers and distribution. One of the speakers in the track titled Merging Content with New Technologies is
from John Wiley and Sons, a publisher of educational materials. While it isn’t difficult to imagine publishers
of educational materials being interested in evolving technologies, we’re still
talking about delivering content to a reader.

Of course, readers are receptive to hearing a story told and,
in fact, the idea of listening to a book has been around for quite some time,
but with advancing technologies listening to a book is set to be a growing
market or at least a growing option for readers as evidenced by Amazon’s
purchase of Audible in 2008. The
purchase was intended to bolster Amazon’s audio download offerings and compete
with iTunes according to the article link below and indeed more books are
available in audible format:

It won’t be long before all of the ways a reader
wants to read or engage with a book will be available in a more transparent
process. I just might like the idea of
sitting on my couch and reading from my large flat screen TV and commanding “Next” when I want to turn the page or
continue with the book in audible format when I need to get off the couch and
do something else but still want to continue with the story, because after all,
it is truly about the story.